TL;DR
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Today we’re taking a narrow concept and using it to learn – specifically about the benefits of decentralization.
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The Chinese government has enlisted a handful of other academic institutions to develop its own custom metaverse.
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In other words, a government-backed technology product that follows the eye movements of users and the immediate environment at all times.
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And that’s why people in the blockchain/Web3 space are so stubborn when it comes to building on decentralized systems.
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Decentralized systems do not require trust in a central authority, be it a nation-state or a private entity.
Full story
We’ve all learned some hard lessons from scary experiences (it’s part of the human experience).
It could be the reason you:
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Learn to knock before entering your parent’s bedroom.
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I learned that the IRS does not accept iTunes gift cards as payment.
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Learned to check the interest on a credit card before flying to Cancun and treating the whole bar to shots (three nights in a row).
And that’s the model we use today: We take a narrow concept and use it to learn — specifically about the benefits of decentralization.
Enter: The Chinese government supported metaverse.
The Chinese government has enlisted the help of Nanjing University of Information and Science Technology (NUIST), along with a handful of other academic institutions, to develop its own custom metaverse.
In other words, a government-backed technology product that follows the eye movements of users and the immediate environment at all times.
Yuck!
Okay… but, isn’t every other country in the world using similar technology?
Good point! And yes, quite.
However, the ‘metaverse’ the rest of the world is playing with has one thing on its side:
It’s a complete mess!
At present, these early metaverse concepts are a tangled web of siled experiences, coming from a number of different/competing companies – each with a wide/varying array of data security measures.
This hodgepodge of technology is worthless in creating a smooth/unified user experience… small harder to pull off.
If we were betting folks, we’d bet that a CCP-backed metaverse would have built in some surveillance-specific backdoors.
(Okay. Ready for the call-back to decentralization? Here it comes…)
…which is why people in the blockchain/Web3 space are so stubborn when it comes to building on decentralized systems.
Decentralized systems do not require trust in a central authority, be it a nation-state or a private entity.
Very cool!